Canada’s Friesen in field as NASCAR Truck Series comes north for playoff

Canada’s Stewart Friesen has made big strides since adding full-time racing duties in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series to his already busy calendar.

His next stop on the circuit will be a playoff race in his home country.

Friesen will be a headliner at Sunday’s Chevrolet Silverado 250 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ont. It’s the opener in the Chase to the Championship, a seven-race schedule that ends with the mid-November finale in Miami.

Friesen, a native of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., has flourished on the Super DIRTcar Series and is enjoying a breakthrough season on the Truck Series.

He finished second to standings leader Johnny Sauter at last week’s UNOH 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway to secure fifth place in the overall point standings, comfortably making the eight-driver Chase cut.

“I’m kind of like an oddball because I came out of being a professional racecar driver already, making a decent living, and started in it late,” he said. “It’s been pretty cool because we’ve brought a big fan base from the northeast.”

Friesen, 35, drove go-karts as a youngster and began his dirt racing career in 1999. He became a regular on the dirt modified circuit after earning a science degree at the University of Windsor in 2007.

“I’ve been racing as long as I can remember,” Friesen said from his home base of Sprakers, N.Y.

He has more than 260 victories in his dirt racing career and finished second in Super DIRTcar Series points in 2016. His NASCAR Truck Series debut came that year at Eldora Speedway, the circuit’s only race on dirt.

Friesen’s skill-set, honed from driving 800-horsepower big-block modifieds, has served him well on the Truck Series, where he partnered with Chris Larsen to create Halmar Friesen Racing.

“We kind of branched off into this NASCAR truck deal, now everything is rolling good,” he said. “We’ve had some great success with it. I’m still running the dirt cars as much as I can. So we definitely stay busy.”

Friesen wrapped up the regular season with 2,012 points. Three runner-up finishes among 11 top-10 finishes helped pad his total.